Reduction of overlapping tags by use of tag-hierarchy

Question

I have had difficulty with using tags correctly and effectively.

Allow me to give an example:

When asking a question about tefilla betzibbur, which tags should be employed? The tag tefillah-betzibbur describes this question perfectly, so ideally that would be the correct tag. However, the tefilla and tzibur-community are equally relevant, although slightly higher on the hierarchical chain.

It seems absurd to employ all three tags, because tefillah-betzibbur is simply the crossover of tefilla and tzibur-community; everything tagged by it should automatically be included in its two parent tags. (For example, if one searches tefilla, something under tefillah-betzibbur should automatically be included as a subcategory.)

The problem is, both are necessary. On one hand, the more specific, the better the tag is. On the other hand, more general tags also have an advantage of being more inclusive (like when browsing, for example).

The same thing applies across the board - there are many specific standalone tags which are in reality just subcategories of more general tags. Is there any way to label subcategories to automatically be included in their parent class?

Answer 1

In my opinion, if one tag is hierarchically lower than (a hyponym of) another, then both should not be applied to a question. For clarity, I'll use an example: parashat-balak. It's a hyponym of bamidbar-numbers-book-of and therefore also of pentateuch-chumash and therefore also of tanach and therefore, possibly, also of jewish-books. Surely not every question tagged parashat-balak should be tagged with all of those! Rather, bamidbar-numbers-book-of should be for questions that are about the book per se, not questions that are about a particular part of the book that's in Balak; likewise, tanach should be for questions that are about Tanach per se, not a part of it that's in a particular book (if the book has a tag). Thus for example "When was Tanach first published in one volume?" should be tagged tanach.

One exception, where a hyponym and its hypernym should both be on a question, is where there's an aspect of the question that's about the hypernym (broader tag) per se. For example, "So-and-so says the book of Numbers contains allusions, in order, to every book of Tanach. Where are they?" should be tagged both bamidbar-numbers-book-of and tanach.

Just MHO.